Baggage reclaim fail.
My suitcase is awesome. The top half is bright orange, the bottom is turquoise and some kind of optical wizardry seamlessly joins the two colours together. It's a giant popsicle on wheels.
It’s so distinctive, I sometimes spot it being loaded onto the plane while I’m waiting to board. That’s one luminous piece of luggage no one will ever mistake for their own generic choice of design when we get to baggage reclaim and returning home from our most recent holiday proved no exception. My wife, however, had issues.
The source of her problem was travelling with a new trolley for the first time. I thought I’d seen it, nestled among the other blues, blacks and dark greys, not too far behind my vibrant trespasser.
“That’s yours isn’t it?”, I asked, about to grab it.
“No. Mine has a brown stripe.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Slowly but surely, the number of people standing around the carousel dwindled as they were reunited with their stuff. Slowly but surely, that sinking feeling you get when you start to suspect yours may not be where it should be, sank deeper. Finally we were the only one’s left.
“Well, I guess we should head to the lost luggage counter.”
“The sign for our flight still says 'Baggage Claim In progress.'”
“Yeah, but look around. No one else is here and it’s been a while since any luggage was spat out. I don’t think it’s coming. Unless...”
A single, forlorn suitcase trundled past us for the 20th time.
“...are you sure that one isn’t yours?”
My wife went over and picked it up.
“Oh. The brown stripe is only on one side.”